Using Indoor Grow Lights for Growing Plants Indoors

Indoor growing has become a popular hobby amongst many urban dwellers. And this is because there are many benefits to having an indoor garden – fresh herbs and vegetables year round without any pesticides or genetically modified organisms.

One of the most significant costs that the urban gardener will encounter is purchasing the grow lights for their indoor grow operation. Therefore, it is essential to choose the correct lighting that will provide your plants with, not only the most amount of light, but also the correct spectrum of lighting. This ensures the proper grow light system for your application, and most efficient use of energy to run your grow light.
 

How is light measured? Plants don’t see light the same way as humans do, and light as it pertains to plants is measured by photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Most grow lights are rated by their Lumen output, which is the amount of light that humans can see, but this measure provides with enough information to asses the efficiency of different grow light applications. What are the most efficient grow lights? When selecting a grow light, you want to choose the light that provides the highest Lumen / watt ratio. This will ensure that you’re providing your plants with the most amount of light with the least amount of energy. Although more efficient grow lights will save on electricity and energy use, they typically carry more expensive price tags and may have start-up costs of several hundred dollars.

Can I use Incandescent or Halogen bulbs as grow lights?
Although you can use incandescent or halogen bulbs as grow lights, they are not very efficient. These types of bulbs produce more heat and use more energy than other types of grow light bulbs available on the marketing.

What Type of Lights are best for growing plants indoors?

When growing plants indoors, it's best to use one of the following:
 

	Compact Fluorescent (CFL) Grow Lights CFL grow lights are cheap, fit in the standard light socket, and are reasonably efficient.  Perfect for the beginning grower or for small indoor grows.
	High Intensity Discharge (HID) Grow Lamps HID lamps generally used for growing plants indoors are the High Pressure Sodium (HPS) and Metal Halide.  HID grow lights provide more intense light and operate more efficiently, but are expensive.
	LED Grow Lights This is the latest in indoor grow lighting technology.  LEDs promise to be the most efficient grow light application, but since they are still relatively new to the market only some manufacturers are able to deliver the right LED grow light formula for optima plant and fruit growth.